About this collection

The city of Los Angeles became the epicenter of a public relations scandal on March 3, 1991, when an amateur cameraman captured on video four uniformed LAPD officers beating motorist Rodney G. King. In addition to generating public outrage, the incident cast a dark shadow over the LAPD and called into question the integrity of the nation's third largest municipal police force. Subsequently, the ten member Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department was formed to conduct a full and fair evaluation of all aspects of the LAPD's structure and operations related to the use of force when making arrests. Included in this collection are the documents that were collected and analyzed by the Commission over the course of its study.